Fossil Grove

The Fossil Grove is a group of plant fossils located within Victoria Park, Glasgow, Scotland. It was discovered in 1887 and contains the fossilised stumps and roots of eleven extinct '' Lepidodendron'' trees, which are sometimes described as " giant club mosses" but are more closely related to quillworts. The Fossil Grove is managed as a museum and has been a popular tourist attraction since it opened for public viewing in 1890.

The site, Glasgow's most ancient visitor attraction and the remnants of an extensive ancient forest, is viewed from within a building constructed to protect the fossils from the elements.

Description

The Fossil Grove is on a by floor of an old quarry, and belongs to the same geological time period as several other groups of '' Lepidodendron'' fossils found northwest of Glasgow. The shales and sandstones exposed around the fossils belong to the Limestone Coal Formation of the Clackmannan Group, with the shale containing imprints of various plant remains. The strata were deposited approximately 325 million years ago when the trees were still alive, and the strata are now folded and cut by many faults and slant downwards to the northeast. The quarry in which the fossils were found is an igneous dolerite sill that was intruded into the sediments and two of the trunks during the Early Permian period approximately 290 million years ago. The dolerite was used to macadamize nearby roads. The trees were only discovered after the quarry was abandoned when it was landscaped into the new Victoria Park.

The stumps themselves are internal casts of the hollow trees, representing the huge cortical meristem of the trees rather than the woody interior. The remnants of trunks belonged to '' Lepidodendron veltheimianum'' trees and the root systems were '' Stigmaria ficoides''. Most trunks are in diameter and tall, and a single larger stump stands in the western part of the grove, measuring in diameter. Some fossils have small wrinkles on their exterior, suggesting wrinkled bark, but fine details are poorly preserved in the fossils. The roots have the dichotomous branching pattern indicative of ''Stigmaria'' and extend over from the trunks. The trees would have grown during the Carboniferous period when Scotland was a more tropical area, situated near the equator. The trees grew in a low, swampy environment that would often flood. The distribution of the trunks suggests that the Grove was once part of a Paleozoic forest that was chiefly composed of ''Lepidodendron'' trees.

The sandstone in the Grove is covered with shale that was deposited as mud in a major flooding episode, and this deposition of sediment knocked over and killed the trees. The soft tissues of the cortical meristem and inner phelloderm of the trees then decomposed and made the trees and root systems hollow, and subsequent flood waters filled the hollow tree stumps with sand. Ripple marks on some surfaces indicate a south-western flow of the flood waters. The trunks were then buried and lithified, and became molds in the surrounding sandstone. The sand inside the trunks became solid rock, and the outer bark of the trees became a thin layer of coal. Though some trunks are elliptical, especially the tallest, ''Lepidodendron'' trees were typically circular. The deformations were likely caused by the force of the rising flood waters that filled the trunks with sand, as indicated by the tendency for the deformations to be in the same direction as the ripple marks, towards the south-west.

Besides the fossil stumps, the only other indications of organic life in the strata of the Fossil Grove are ''Arenicola'' burrows found in some sandstone beds.

History

In 1885 part of the Scotstoun estate was leased to create a park, and the Fossil Grove was discovered in late 1887 when a pilot channel was cut through an old quarry in preparation for the construction of a road in the park. In April 1888 members of the Geological Society of Glasgow suggested to leave the fossils in situ and construct a building around the fossils. The commissioners of Partick elected to leave the fossils where they were uncovered and in 1889, at a cost of about £400, constructed a building to contain the fossils. On 1 January 1890, the Fossil House covering the Fossil Grove opened to the public. The wooden roof timbers of the House were replaced with metal trusses in the 1920s. A bomb damaged the roof and a single trunk during World War II, and a concrete spacer replaced the center of the damaged trunk. The windowed roof was replaced with regular roof panels in the 1970s. Today the building continues to be maintained by Glasgow City Council. The Fossil Grove Trust (along with Historic Scotland) are working with the Council to improve the drainage, ventilation, and interpretation of the site. Friends of Victoria Park are establishing a fernery in the adjacent quarry area. The fossil trees are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Visitor information

The Fossil Grove is open from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. only on the third Sunday of the month, from April to October, and the surrounding park is always open. The Fossil House has stone and tarmac paths and a few stone steps, and is wheelchair accessible. The walk around the entire quarry is about long. Admission is free.

About east of the Fossil House is an oak sculpture of a Lycopod tree with a giant centipede. The sculpture was constructed in 2014 to commemorate the 20th Commonwealth Games.

See also

* Fossil Forest, Dorset

References

External links

*

Fossil Grove website

Images of the Fossil Grove and its fossils
at The Glasgow Story

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Paleontological sites of Europe
Museums in Glasgow
Fossils of Scotland
Carboniferous Scotland
Natural history museums in Scotland
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland
1887 in Scotland
1887 in science
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